Hidenori Kusaka And Satoshi Yamamoto Will Make TheirĀ
First-Ever North American Appearance At The Nation’s Preeminent Annual Pop Culture And Comics ConventionĀ
San Francisco, CA, April 11, 2016 āĀ VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, announces that it will welcome the creators of the POKĆMON ADVENTURES manga (graphic novel) seriesāHidenori Kusaka and Satoshi Yamamotoāfor a very special, first-ever professional appearance at the 2016 Comic-Con International. POKĆMON ADVENTURES is published in English exclusively by VIZ Media.
Comic-Con International is one of the nation’s largestĀ comic book, science fiction and pop culture events, and will take place July 20thā24thĀ at the San Diego Convention Center, in San Diego, CA. VIZ Media will be located in Booth 2813. Complete details on Comic-Con are available at:Ā www.comic-con.org.
Hidenori Kusaka and Satoshi Yamamoto are scheduled to make a series of appearances throughout Comic-Con. The pair will meet fans at the VIZ Media booth for signings and participate on a POKĆMON panel event alongside VIZ Media editors. Other exciting POKĆMON activities will be detailed soon.
“It’s a tremendous honor to welcome Hidenori Kusaka and Satoshi Yamamoto as special guests for the 2016 Comic-Con International,” says Beth Kawasaki,Ā Senior Editorial Director for Perfect Square.Ā “We know fans of all ages will be very excited for the opportunity to join in the fun as POKĆMON celebrates its 20thĀ Anniversary and VIZ Media celebrates its 30thAnniversary this year.”
Hidenori Kusaka writes and Satoshi Yamamoto creates artwork for POKĆMON ADVENTURES, where fans’ favoriteĀ PokĆ©mongame charactersĀ jumpĀ out of the screen into the pages of this action-packed manga! The creative duo have developed several series within the POKĆMON ADVENTURES universe includingĀ POKĆMON ADVENTURES, POKĆMON ADVENTURES: FIREREDĀ & LEAFGREEN,Ā POKĆMON ADVENTURES: EMERALD,Ā POKĆMON ADVENTURES: DIAMOND & PEARL/PLATINUM,Ā POKĆMON ADVENTURES:Ā HeartGoldĀ &Ā SoulSilver,Ā POKĆMON ADVENTURES: BLACK & WHITEĀ andĀ POKĆMON Xā¢Y.Ā They are currently working on the twelfth and thirteenth story arcs, POKĆMONĀ Xā¢YĀ and POKĆMON Ī©RUBY Ī±SAPPHIRE.
In addition to writing manga, Hidenori Kusaka also edits children’s books and plans mixed-media projects for Shogakukan’s children’s magazines. He uses the PokĆ©mon Electrode as his author portrait.
Satoshi Yamamoto began drawing VIZ Media’s POKĆMON ADVENTURES in 2001, starting with volume 10. Yamamoto’s favorite manga creators/artists include Fujiko Fujio (Doraemon), Yukinobu Hoshino (2001 Nights), and Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira). He loves films, monsters, mysteries, punk rock music, and livin’ the good life. He uses the PokĆ©mon Swalot as his artist portrait.
POKĆMON is one of the most successful international entertainment franchises of all time. More than 275 million POKĆMON video game titles and over 21.5 billion PokĆ©mon Trading Cards have been sold in more than 74 countries in addition to substantial publishing and merchandise sales. VIZ Media is the official North American distributor for a wide variety of POKĆMON home media releases including animated series and films and also publishes a variety of POKĆMON manga graphic novel series includingĀ POKĆMON ADVENTURES, POKĆMON ADVENTURES: FIREREDĀ & LEAFGREEN,Ā POKĆMON ADVENTURES: EMERALD,Ā POKĆMON ADVENTURES: DIAMOND & PEARL/PLATINUM,Ā POKĆMON ADVENTURES:Ā HeartGoldĀ &Ā SoulSilver,Ā POKĆMON ADVENTURES: BLACK & WHITEĀ andĀ POKĆMON Xā¢Y.
For additional information on POKĆMON and other anime/manga titles published by VIZ Media, please visitĀ www.VIZ.com.